Bleaching agents and fungicides can be divided into chlorine bleaching agents and peroxide bleaching agents. The chlorine bleaching agents containing sodium hypochlorite as their main component have been used for bleaching clothes, or bleaching mildew on the walls of a house or on furniture since they nave high bleaching power. However, though the chlorine bleaching agents have excellent bleaching power, since they discolor the clothes, they are not appropriate for bleaching dyed or patterned cloths. They also have defects that they generate a peculiar odor due to the molecular chlorine, and give unpleasant feel to the users, and that they may cause chlorine gas poisoning if they are misused.
On the other hand, peroxide bleaching agents have a broader range of use application as a bleaching agent than that of the chlorine bleaching agents, and have no unpleasant smell, thus the usage thereof, particularly that of the household bleaching agent has been increased. But, peroxides alone have poorer bleaching power in comparison with the chlorine bleaching agents, and the bleaching power thereof is not sufficient for bleaching the clothes at a low temperature, or for bleaching mildew and the like, which is attached on walls of a house or on furniture, in particular, on the bathroom walls, kitchen counter, ceiling or tile joints and the like.
Accordingly, peroxides such as hydrogen peroxide, sodium carbonate-hydrogen peroxide adduct, and sodium perborate have been conventionally used together with N-acyl compounds such as tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED), tetraacetylglycoluryl (TAGU), and esters such as glucose pentaacetate and saccharose octaacetate, to improve the bleaching power. Various nitrile compounds have been also proposed as a bleach activating agent for improving the bleaching power of the peroxides. For example, various nitrites have been proposed as a useful bleach activating agent in United Kingdom Patent No. 802,035, iminodiacetonitrile has been proposed as a useful bleach activating agent in U.S. Pat. No. 3,882,035, and p-chlorobenzoyl cyanamide has been proposed as a useful bleach activating agent in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-52880.
However, even though these activating agents are used together with the peroxides, the bleaching of clothes can not be carried out sufficiently at a low temperature, and the bleaching effect on the mildew in a house has been insufficient as well. Besides, acetylamide compounds such as TAED and acetyl esters such as glucose pentaacetate have a drawback that they react with hydrogen peroxide to generate peracetic acid and produce a peculiar odor.